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Technical and Competition
The Technical and Competition areas for Orienteering Australia (OA) fall under the portfolio of the OA Director, Technical, and are overseen through the following committees:
Technical (Chair - vacant);
Mapping (2019 Chair, Neil Barr);
Events (2019 Chair, Greg Hawthorne); In addtion, other aspects of the Technical and Competition areas are managed by the OA Badge Scheme Secretary John Oliver, and the Manager Coaching and Officiating Development Jim Mackay. Elite rankings are maintained by Bruce Arthur, nonelite rankings by Darryl Erbacher and NOL points by Ian Prosser. The work of the above people and of the committee chairs in 2019 is acknowledged. The Eventor working group reports to the OA Director, Media & Communications (although this position was vacant during 2019).
Technical
The Technical Committee met at the Australian 3-Days in Perth in April 2019.
OA rules and documents referred to below are maintained on the Orienteering Australia web site, either in the Operational Manual or the Technical Pages. Organisers, course planners and controllers are encouraged to seek clarification from state and national technical directors regarding the interpretation of the OA rules and appendices and of the NOL Guidelines, which will be reviewed in 2020.
Rules - Foot Orienteering
The 2019 International Orienteering Federation (IOF) rules were not available until after the 2018 OA Conference; changes incorporated into OA rules included that minimum control separation in sprints has been increased to 25 metres, and the start triangle is considered a control for the purpose of that rule.
A trial of 1: 10 000 scale for long race World Ranking Events (WRE) has been permitted by IOF. Older age classes (i.e. World Masters Orienteering Championships, as per IOF rules, are permitted to have 1: 7 500 scale; discussions have begun amongst the OA Technical Committee regarding age classes which should have the larger scale but consensus was not reached for 2019.
Addition of a 3rd dot point to IOF rule 20.5, allowing interrogation of a control where a competitor’s card has not registered a punch, was included in the IOF rules. Despite extensive discussion, no decision has been taken to add this to the OA rules as yet although it will be applicable to IOF classes in regional championships and WREs; currently this rule is believed to be a trial by IOF for 2019.
OA Rule changes which are relevant to the conduct of Australian races are as follows.
12.5 – Allowing for M/W21E to have 2-minute starts in long WREs (still recommending 3 min, and also suggesting 3 min for M/W20E in long races).
12.6 – Making it clearer that in World Ranking Events, start order is usually according to ranking.
19.4 – Controls shall not be sited within 25m of each other for map scales 1: 4 000 & 1: 5 000 as per IOF rules.
Appendix 1 – Updated course-class combinations and relative run rates .
David Hogg’s work on course-class combinations, based on revised relative speeds, provides tables for sprint, middle and long distance, which have then been adjusted by the OA Director, Technical so that elite classes should always be given the lowest-numbered courses; ideally there would be no other classes on the same course as elites but this may not always be practical.
This Appendix is an update of previous recommendations originally developed for long races by Robin & Adrian Uppill and for sprints by Anna Sheldon. The guidelines are advisory only and may be varied by the course planner and controller to reflect terrain differences between courses, likely numbers of competitors in each class, special requirements for National Orienteering League events or team selection trials, and other factors.
The table of recommendations for state championships without elites has been deleted and it is suggested that states develop their own, using these guidelines but based on their anticipated attendance.
Appendix 2 – Principles for course planning.
Some models of SI card cannot record a punch for a leg which is shorter than 6 seconds’ running time, so this situation is best avoided when course planning.
Appendix 8 – Event formats.
Sprint events now reference the need to have a minimum 5 seconds’ running time between controls, hence the IOF’s 25-metre rule.
Appendix 12 - Use of SIAC at major events.
This appendix regarding use of SIAC +/- mixed punching now references the need to have a minimum 5 seconds’ running time between controls, hence the IOF’s 25-metre rule. The Australian Relays now have a maximum 40-minute winning time (per competitor) set for all age classes including elites. It was not considered practical to recommend a total time per team. Guidelines for courseclass combinations will be developed in future and the demand for M/W75+ relay class will be met.
International Specifications for Orienteering Maps 2017
The IOF’s forest mapping specifications should be read by all mappers and controllers and course planners, and must be used for international events, e.g. regional championships, World Ranking Events. Also it is expected that Group A (national) events in Australia comply with these standards.
States are encouraged to update their existing maps to ISOM 2017 where possible and new maps are being prepared to these specifications. There has been significant debate about the practicalities of implementation of ISOM 2017 in the context of Australia’s granite and gold mining terrain, and a mapping workshop was held during Oceania to19 to discuss some of the issues.
IOF Event Advisers are now registered in IOF Eventor and the process of Federations applying to host World Ranking Events is done online. Australia now has 18 foot-O EAs, 4 of whom are Senior Event Advisers. There is no longer a cap on Federations’ allocations of WREs, and IOF levies are stratified based on attendance. IOF Eventor should ideally be made available for event entry for WREs, but it has not yet been fully determined how process this can become compatible with federations’ own pre-existing entry systems.
Controlling – Foot Orienteering
National Events 2019
The work of the following OA Level 3 controllers for Group A events is acknowledged from 2019:
Event
NOL 1 Australian Relay Champs MW20/MW21 NOL 2 Long NOL 3 Easter Sprint Relay NOL 4 Easter Day 1 Sprint NOL 5 Easter Day 2 Long NOL 5 Easter Day 3 Middle NOL 7 Aus Sprint Champs (WRE) NOL 8 Aus Middle Champs (WRE) NOL 9 NSW Middle Champs NOL 10 NSW Ultralong NOL 11 Oceania Sprint Champs NOL 12 Aus Long Champs NOL 13 Oceania Relay Champs NOL 14 Oceania Long Champs NOL 15 Oceania Middle Champs
Venue
Hill End, NSW Hill End, NSW Perth, WA Perth, WA Perth, WA Perth, WA Narrogin, WA Narrogin, WA Cowra, NSW Cowra, NSW Wagga Wagga, NSW Cootamundra, NSW Cootamundra, NSW Beechworth, VIC Wangaratta, VIC
Date
March 30 March 31 April 19 April 20 April 21 April 22 April 26 April 27 May 18 May 19 September 28 September 29 September 30 October 5 October 6
Controller(s)
Ron Junghans Andrew Lumsden Richard Matthews and Graham Braid Richard Matthews and Phil Taylor Richard Matthews and Craig Dufty Richard Matthews and Brian Austin Russell Candy Russell Candy Rob Vincent Rob Vincent Nick Dent Bill Jones Bill Jones Tim Hatley Jon Sutcliffe
Controllers’ reports were received following some of these events, but more would be welcomed!
IOF Event Advising
IOF Event Advisers for World Ranking Events in 2019 were:
Jenny Casanova – Aust Sprint, Middle Jon Sutcliffe – Aust Long Jon Sutcliffe - Oceania Championships Graham Teahan (NZ) - IOF Senior Event Adviser Oceania Championships.
Controller Accreditation
Orienteering Australia intends to formalise the in-house process for revising, approving and uploading our coaching and controlling curricula; a working group was convened to review levels 1, 2, and 3 of the controllers’ curricula and identify commonalities between them. The Technical Committee meeting at Easter 2019 agreed that it would be appropriate to prepare a Common Handbook for all levels of controlling both foot and MTB orienteering events.
Accreditations for coaches and controllers are processed by the Manager Coaching and Officiating Development; state technical coordinators are responsible for forwarding Level 1 & 2 applications & renewals, whereas Level 3 controllers’ accreditations are first signed off by the OA Director, Technical. Since the end of 2015, the expiry period for all controllers at all levels has
been 4 years, however the points for reaccreditation can be accumulated from activities undertaken over the preceding 8 years. There is some discussion about extending the accreditation period to 5 years now that it is no longer mandated by an external organisation.
No Level 3 controllers’ workshops were held during 2019. The next L3 workshop was intended to be held in Tasmania early in 2020 with focus on controlling for Australian Championships.
Use of SI Air Technology (SIAC)
It is not mandated that SI Air technology be made available to all competitors at Australian carnivals at this point in time; mixed punching systems are permitted provided the opportunity to hire SIAC is available, but given the increasing number of competitors buying their own SI Air Cards this recommendation may change in future.
Results Database
Eventor has consistently been used for uploading results from events at all levels; the OA website, and many states’ websites, link directly from the home page to Eventor for current results.
Information Technology
Both the Australian 3-Days and Australian Championships used O-Lynx for live results display; the latter carnival was able to fund this due to the Moira Whiteside bequest through ONSW.
Mapping
The following is a summary of 2019 mapping progress, based on contributions from Adrian Uppill, Noel Schoknecht and Neil Barr. Compilation and editing by Neil Barr.
2019 Mapping Meeting
A meeting on the new IOF map specification was held at Yackandandah, Victoria. The meeting had around 25 participants and ranged across:
Key changes in ISOM2017 and ISSprOM.
Compliance issues and comparison of current and foreshadowed testing tools (OCAD, CheckOMap,
OOMapper).
Print Tech test sheets discussed and distributed.
Comparisons of approaches to mapping in field with georeferenced data and tablet.
Issues around mapping very detailed terrain using
ISOM 2017 explored as part of a field check of Rowdy
Flat terrain using lidar base maps and the existing map. Finished with a discussion about the ability to map these areas legibly and fairly at 1:15,000 as required by ISOM 2017. Diverging opinions presented.
Ludek Krticka from the IOF Mapping Commission was invited to discuss the latest IOFmapping specifications an d to see first-hand issues with mapping complex mining and granite terrain but unfortunately was unable to attend. Key outcomes:
Agreed that the annual workshops held for the last 3 years at the Australian Championships are useful and should continue.
Implementation has been proceeding cautiously, with most new maps for major events being at least partially compliant with the new specification. The degree of compliance depends on whether the approach was a remap or a conversion.
As in the past, all new maps to be used for Group A events should be produced to the currentmapping specifications. Conversion of major event standard maps is often a majorundertaking, comparable with a remap. Conversion is only likely to be a path for spur gullyterrain. Granite and mining terrain will generally be remapped rather than converted. It will not be financially feasible to fund the professional mapping of high quality areas for events other than major carnivals. Australia can expect a gradual conversion of our map stable from ISOM01 to ISOM17 over the next decade. This may necessitate some compromise for some non-carnival Group A events (for example the choice of a specific terrain for a NOL/WOC selection trial) where the income from the event cannot fund a remap or a conversion of complex terrain.
Compliance is something measured by degree. It is much more than just using the new symbol set. Legibility standards defined by minimum gaps, minimum areas, minimum lengths and minimum widths are much more demanding. There is not a full tool set to assess these standards within the current mapping software suites. The closest thing to a compliance checking tool is an email submission service provided by a private individual, and this also has some issues. Australian mappers have only started to explore these tools this year. Mapping Committee compliance checking has remained partially subjective. Inevitably this means there will be differing opinions about acceptable levels of ISOM17 compliance.
Map printing. Offset printing is now financially prohibitive and difficult to organise, making digital printing the new standard. This shift in technology is the basis of the new ISOM and ISSprOM. There is a wide variation in the quality of digital printing machines, from the high end with sharpness almost indistinguishable from off-set, to machines with output unsuitable for orienteering. Given this variability, there is now a greater onus on event officials to ensure acceptable print quality is achieved. The print quality of several maps used for WRE’s and national events during 2019 was disappointing. During 2019 the MC updated the Print Tech ‘test’ sheet to the new specifications and supplied all nations with printed copies at both spot colour / offset (for colour checking) and laser (for print quality, sharpness, etc) prints. Digital versions of the Print Tech test sheet are available from the IOF web site. Organisers should print these with their printer(s) of choice and compare the output with the IOF-supplied sheets. Copies of these were made available at the 2019 mapping seminar and may also be obtained from Neil Barr.
No WRE maps from the Oceania carnival were officially submitted by Event Advisers to the Mapping Committee for compliance testing (one was submitted unofficially and passed the test with some amendments). We need to do better with this map approval process for future WREs. We expect that this situation will improve as Event Advisers become more familiar with mapping approval processes and mappers implement the new specification.
The full implementation of ISSPrOM begins next year. It is too early to comment on progress in Australia.
The IOF Map Commission has published an updated version (23/11/2019) of Appendix 1 that now includes colour definitions for Sprint maps. There are significant changes and all new sprint maps need to comply with these definitions, both colour mixes and colour table order.
There is currently only a limited means to digitally checking compliance of sprint maps. On occasions legibility of map symbols can be a problem for competitors. This may mean there is security in exceeding the minimum width in the specification for symbols on sprint maps.
Events
The Events Committee met at the Australian 3-Days in Hobart. The proposed 2020 NOL schedule was presented by the High Performance Management Group.
The Events Committee Chair has provided a proposed schedule of Major Australian Carnivals until 2028, allocating them to states on the rotational basis which has been used previously. IOF Regional Championships are not currently part of this schedule and therefore a host for Oceania 2023 is currently being sought.
Mountain Bike Orienteering
No MTBO World Ranking Events were held by Australia in 2019 due to the cost of hosting WREs vs the minimal elite attendance, however, an MTBO IOF Event Adviser workshop was held during the Australian MTBO championships. This resulted in a number of Australian MTBO Event Advisers becoming accredited by the IOF although not all of these people have been through Orienteering Australia’s controller education and accreditation processes.
Jenny Casanova Director, Technical
